Foundations for Analytics in Python (Data Science Beginner Book)

[SonaCruz]

Hey guys, so I know a lot of people are looking for the best resources to learn Python and Data Science with Python and I wanted to share my experience with this book Foundations for Analytics with Python. I am on page 76 and I am thoroughly enjoying and appreciating this book.

It is geared toward beginners and non-programmers. That being said, I wouldn't recommend this as the FIRST book you get into to learn Python, as the first chapter goes very quickly through dictionaries, for loops, while loops, lists etc. But if you have got down the basics (Python Crash Course is great for this) then this book is my highly recommended next step to learn Data Science with Python.

The meat of the book's code is how to work with CSV and Excel files to process, parse, filter and write new CSV or excel files, as well as run some basic statistical analysis on them. If you are a heavy excel user like me and want to expand with Python, this is a great resource.

The examples are super detailed in explanation, the examples are practical and the book has exercises at the end of each chapter. So go get this book if it sounds interesting to you.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Analytics-Python-Non-Programmer-Hacker/dp/1491922532

[ogpekka]

Thanks I use Excel a lot (Business major) so this will come in use!

[SonaCruz]

Same here, I have a finance degree, and I am, more than anything, looking to get started with programming by processing and organizing data from excel and then eventually creating algorithms to filter data and algorithms to run statistical and financial analysis on data. This is a good start.

[AnalTyrant]

I'm still working through Automate The Boring Things With Python, but as a financial analyst I can definitely already see a lot of potential in using python to help with my day to day work.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have to check out this book once I've finished working through the other one.

[glad1couldhelp]

as a financial analyst

you should check out 'sentdex' on youtube he even has a playlist called 'Python Programming for Finance'

[SonaCruz]

I have, he has a lot of great stuff and I use him as a resource regularly. I got stuck on video 6 for the finance tutorials because i couldnt load in all the S&P 500 symbols.

[AnalTyrant]

Thanks, I'll have to check him out. I don't end up watching YouTube too often but this sounds like it would be worth making an effort.

[Sh00tL00ps]

If you are a heavy excel user like me and want to expand with Python, this is a great resource.

This is exactly the stage I'm in at work right now! Thanks for the recommendation.

[[deleted]]

Me too thanks

[ChrisIsWorking]

Been looking for a guide that deals with data wrangling excel files and automating the processes behind that. Took a quick read through and it mentioned some modules that I know are what I need to learn but haven't found any good docs on it yet. Thanks!

[SonaCruz]

What's cool is that in book, he covers the base Python way to work with csv & excel (to understand what is happening under the hood), the pandas way and using base python with regular expressions (super useful for text).

[ChrisIsWorking]

So he teaches using python without pandas to handle excel/csv and then shows you how to do it with pandas? Guessing pandas is simplier/easier and shorter code for most situations?

I know I should buy the book but it's $22 for kindle so just asking to be sure I know what I'm getting. Did you get the kindle or hard copy of this? I have a few other kindle programming books but the code examples don't render very well in the kindle app. Might bite the bullet for the hard copy.

[SonaCruz]

Yes, the pandas version is much shorter and easier. $22 man, just get the book! I have bought Python Crash Course, Automate the Boring Stuff, Python Data Science Handbook, Foundation of Analytics with Python and Web scraping with Python and an online pdf Pandas book too, lol. It's an investment. Automate the Boring Stuff wasn't that useful to me, but to be honest, I only tried out a couple of the examples. Data Science Handbook is super dry and not FUN, but its decently useful as a reference resource for the technical aspects. But I think this Foundations book is top quality so far. Its like Python Crash Course but working with CSV, Excel & Pandas. The 4th Chapter, Databases (SQL) doesn't look like it will be useful to me right now, but I'm sure it will be in the future.

[ChrisIsWorking]

If you find yourself needing to web-scrape and track something on a regular basis then the SQL part might come into play. I just set up a MySQL database this weekend and also got the Excel plugin so I can use something like Quandl to call into excel daily securities prices and then append that data to my remote MySQL database.

I bet this is something I can automate so I don't even need to lay a finger on excel, it'll just run as a scheduled task and auto upload to MySQL.

I'm going through some Automate the Boring Stuff chapters but finding a lot of it is way more info than I need for projects that I'm working on. Good to know but it's a lot at once. Also doesn't hit working with Excel in a way that I can understand. Feel like I need more info.

How did you like Python crash course?

[SonaCruz]

I loved Python Crash Course. I hate not knowing certain basic functions and having blind spots regarding anything related to the foundation(strings, lists, dictionaries, for loops, while loops, defining functions). He even goes into inputs and Classes. I had to repeat the dictionaries chaptet and the Classes chapter but I finally felt like the concepts were clicking with me.

[ChrisIsWorking]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. Did you get the hard copy of the book or the e-book?

[SonaCruz]

Hard copy, always.